Apr. 21, 2012

Written by

Hema Easley

NEW CITY — If Clarkstown taxpayers were wondering how the Board of Education added $1.1 million to the proposed 2012-13 budget and yet the infusion made no difference to the tax rate, here’s why:

The extra spending approved 6-0 by the school board Thursday night was taken out of the district’s reserve funds. Taxpayers won’t get the bill this year.

The $1.1 million was in addition to $5 million the district already proposed taking out of three reserve funds. The district had initially thought to use $5.8 million from reserves, but $800,000 in additional state aid reduced that figure to $5 million.

On Thursday, in a budget hearing before the vote, school board member Phillip DeGaetano pushed for adding as many as 15 new reading teachers, reading from a letter by the teachers union president saying such support was needed. Trustees Joe Malgieri and Diane Hoeneveld opposed the inclusion because Superintendent Margaret Keller-Cogan hadn’t proposed it and they thought alternatives were available.

As a compromise, the district agreed to add four contingency teachers and 10 contingency teaching assistants at a cost of $590,000. The board also agreed to replace Clarkstown North’s aging boiler at a cost of $500,000 and add a diving coach to the district’s swim team for $9,000.

The additional spending raised next year’s school budget to $180.9 million, up from $175.62 million in the current spending plan. Most of the increase has come from higher salaries and health and retirement benefits for employees.

The budget was praised by all school board members and greeted by applause.

“We have provided the community with a very defendable budget,” Keller-Cogan told board members and residents who had gathered for the vote.

“The district is in great financial shape,” DeGaetano said.

The $6.1 million Clarkstown will draw from reserves is the highest it has used in years. Since the economy crashed in 2008, the district has set aside money from reserves to bridge the budget deficit, mainly caused by decreasing revenue, higher payments for employee benefits and declining state and federal aid.

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In the past two years, the current and last budget, the district set aside reserves but ended up not using any, John LaNave, the director of fiscal management, has said. But he has said that this year there is no way to balance the budget other than using fund balance and reserves.

All things being equal, LaNave said last month, Clarkstown would require $10.8 million from reserve funds in 2013-14 and $15.6 million in 2014-15.

The extra spending drew the ire of Clarkstown Taxpayers, a citizens group that fights for lower taxes, which said it was unconscionable that the district was using reserves to hire more staff.

“Clarkstown Taxpayers strongly disagree with DeGaetano’s approach to handling school problems,” said Guy Gervasi, president of Clarkstown Taxpayers. “Rather than throwing money at these problems, he should look at the root causes and fix them without using taxpayers’ money.

“We need to keep politics out of this, and we shouldn’t be kowtowing to unions just to get elected,” he said, referring to DeGaetano, who is running for a second term.

DeGaetano rejected the suggestion. “I’m not kowtowing to anyone. I do what’s right for the kids, and for the kids only.”

The public votes on the budget May 15. They also will elect three members to the school board, from the following candidates : DeGaetano, Donna Ehrenberg, Leo Macias, Wendy Adolff, Chris Conti and Mike Aglialoro.